EmuMovies Future (Need Input)

[Circo]

First of all I would just like to thank everyone for the tremendous support of my project and website EmuMovies.com over the past four years.  Back in early 2005 I started out with a single page text only little website with one really crappy NES video set to use in mamewah.  Since then and completely by accident the site has grown to 100's of pages and over 32 video sets in up to 4 formats each (HiQ, SQ or 640x480 and 320x240) and (AVI and FLV, to support different front-ends).   Well I have reached about the maximum size possible to keep going on even the best and most expensive shared or VPS plans.  Last month EmuMovies reached a record 3,200GB of bandwidth and that sent everything crashing down.  And for the last two weeks I have been struggling to find a stable long term home.  I thought I had it figured out but it seems that almost every hosting situation is not suited for what I am doing here.  The FTP is currently up and stable but I will not be able to take any more users with my current hosting situation, even with the site now spread across two separate servers. 
What I am looking for is some true honest feedback in order to make the best decision for myself, the website, and the community.  First I want to go over what my agenda for the site is this year and the foreseeable future and then I would like to put a few questions out to gauge the viability of what I am getting ready to do.  First this is what the upgrade is going to look like, I am pretty excited by this

New EmuMovies DEDICATED server:

Operation System: CentOS

Processor: Core 2 Duo 3.0 GHZ

Cache: 6 MB

cPanel w/ Fantastico

Managed

RAM: 6 GB

HDD: 250 GB

Traffic: 5,000 GB

Uplink/Speed: 100 mbps

I have already discussed the site, types of files, usage, everything with the provider and they assure me it will be a good fit.  Also since I will now have a dedicated server I will FINALLY be able to make the FTP "Read Only" for general users, which will end the problem of files and even sets disappearing because of accidental deletion, which is happening more and more.   

Agenda for 2009 (In order of priority):

#1 - Convert existing video sets to No-Intro naming convention (with corresponding DAT files)

#2 - Audit and replace any missing videos in existing sets

#3 - Convert existing video sets to FLV for use in HyperSpin/GameEx

2009-Ongoing - Add new sets and release HiQ (640x480) videos for existing sets.

Questions:

#1 - Do you feel that EmuMovies.com is a worthwhile service to the community?

#2 - Do you feel that this site/project can justify a $20-$25 per year subscription
fee for secure/fast direct downloads?

#3 - Would you recommend EmuMovies.com to a friend?

#4 - Should we close up FTP sign-ups and just stay where we are?

Please keep in mind that any existing "Lifetime" members will keep that access and never be charged a subscription fee.  I know this sounds silly, but I am getting ready to dump a healthy portion of savings into this and I need to assure myself that I am making the right decision here.  I wouldn't say my user base is huge but it's definitely not small and continues to grow.  I have been a long time member to both the BYOAC, GameEx and HyperSpin forums.  I am going to post this in all three forums so that I might best gauge interest in this drastic upgrade.  Also keep in mind, in the unlikely event that I decide not to make this move, rest assured that the FTP will still continue to operate as it has, I just will not be accepting any additional sign ups for accounts.

I look forward to your honest feedback, I started this project as a way of giving back to the community and also because I just love to do it   Thanks again for everyone's support!!

-Circo

[Space Fractal]

Why use diffecent video format for diffecent frontend. Whould it not the best to only use one standard format, example MPEG or such, so it can been used in ALL frontend? This might also bring the frafik

[FrizzleFried]

Lets talk reality.  The reality of the situation is that just about EVERYONE in the scene appreciates your hard work and loves the product you put out.   That said,  the vast majority will NOT pay $10 a year,  let alone $25.00 a year for a subscription.  Why?   There are many,  the least of which is that there are a lot of cheap ---daisies--- out there (and I rank among the finest of the cheap ---daisies---!).   Ask yourself this question... WHY would someone pay a yearly subscription when they'd only have to subscribe once and get everything they want/need the first year.  There really isn't enough updates to justify a $25.00 yearly subscription.

If you absolutely must go with a paid subscription model you may want to go with a larger initial fee and then very low yearly fees... or even offer multiple year options like this:

1 year - $20.00
2 years - $30.00
3 years - $35.00
Unlimited - $50.00

But even at those rates I can't see many subscribers (to be honest).   

Maybe..

1 year - $10.00
2 years - $15.00
3 years - $18.00
Unlimited - $20.00

That maybe more realistic frankly.

[Aceldamor]

What I am looking for is some true honest feedback in order to make the best decision for myself, the website, and the community.  First I want to go over what my agenda for the site is this year and the foreseeable future and then I would like to put a few questions out to gauge the viability of what I am getting ready to do.  First this is what the upgrade is going to look like, I am pretty excited by this

I think it is us who should be thanking you for providing such an extravagant service for such a niche market. It really is a phenomenal job your doing, and I think it should continue.

New EmuMovies DEDICATED server:

Operation System: CentOS

Processor: Core 2 Duo 3.0 GHZ

Cache: 6 MB

cPanel w/ Fantastico

Managed

RAM: 6 GB

HDD: 250 GB

Traffic: 5,000 GB

Uplink/Speed: 100 mbps

Obviously you will have a Raid 5 scenario, and a 64bit OS, otherwise anything over 4 GB of ram is worthless.

I have already discussed the site, types of files, usage, everything with the provider and they assure me it will be a good fit.  Also since I will now have a dedicated server I will FINALLY be able to make the FTP "Read Only" for general users, which will end the problem of files and even sets disappearing because of accidental deletion, which is happening more and more.   

Very good news indeed

Agenda for 2009 (In order of priority):

#1 - Convert existing video sets to No-Intro naming convention (with corresponding DAT files)

#2 - Audit and replace any missing videos in existing sets

#3 - Convert existing video sets to FLV for use in HyperSpin/GameEx

Also cool news, as I personally will becoming a HyperSpin user soon

Questions:

#1 - Do you feel that EmuMovies.com is a worthwhile service to the community?

Absolutely

#2 - Do you feel that this site/project can justify a $20-$25 per year subscription
fee for secure/fast direct downloads?

Perhaps not a yearly subscritpion, have you considered a "per set" and "update" price scenario?

What I mean is say, 15 bucks for MAME, 10 for NES, etc. In addition, perhaps a 5-10 buck charge for update packs for the previous 2 releases for Mame.

You could still offer annual subscriptions at discounted price, or "package" deals, like all Nintendo sets, Sega sets, etc.

Just some other options to consider. Some people will want all movies, which would warrant an annual subscription, while others will only want certain sets, so why not offer both, while having the ability to recover some of your expenditures?

Obviously prices are purely shown above for examples sake, but you get the idea. I think Frizzle has a point about people being "Frugal", especially during this economy.

#3 - Would you recommend EmuMovies.com to a friend?

Absolutely! I already have as a matter of fact.

#4 - Should we close up FTP sign-ups and just stay where we are?

See question 2


Just know that you are part of a small group of people who have contributed greatly to this community, and people like me will always be appreciative.  I honestly think people will be willing to contribute to your efforts.

Just my $.02 American.

Ace

[Twin-X]

#1 - Do you feel that EmuMovies.com is a worthwhile service to the community?

For me it is. So yes!

#2 - Do you feel that this site/project can justify a $20-$25 per year subscription
fee for secure/fast direct downloads?

Yes i host myself a picture database and a diy forum for synthesisers and midistuff. So i know what a dedicated server costs and the bandwidth included.

#3 - Would you recommend EmuMovies.com to a friend?

I have no friends.

#4 - Should we close up FTP sign-ups and just stay where we are?

If they did not pay close it!

[boomstick]

Hi Circo, Let me start by saying what an invaluable resource the EmuMovies project is to the community.  It's clear from the amount of time and hard work you have devoted to the project, that it means as much to you as it does the community, and rightly so!

I wouldn't be suprised to find most members of these forums feel the same, so that pretty much answers #1.

As for the $20-$25 per year subscription fees, I myself am more than happy to pay these fees. I feel the ftp service is well worth the yearly subscription, and besides, if the fees help towards covering your costs, then surely the community, who benefit greatly from the EmuMovies project should give a little back!

People pay Microshaft a yearly xbox live subscription of £40 (GBP) to play online multiplayer, a service that would be/is free on the PC version of the games.  Allways amused me, and yes, i did get suckered in to xbox live on my 360, hardly ever used it tho.

As pointed out by previous posters though, not everyone may be willing to pay the yearly ftp subscription.  So the pricing I guess needs some serious thought.  Hopefully you will get enough feedback from these forums, and your current ftb subscription take-up to gauge what pricing to opt for. 

Aceldamor and FrizzleFried's suggestions offer possible alternatives that I see working. I personally would like to see the yearly subscriptions continue, but some cheaper, one-off set pricings might be a way to gain interest from those who dont feel the yearly subscription is worth their hard earned $.

#3 - Would I recommend emumovies to a friend? - Yes! already have done, and will continue to do so.

As for #4, taking no new ftp signups - I hope this does not come to pass, but accept there must be a limit to the capacity of your ftp hosting / bandwidth, hence a new dedicated server.

I know some sets are available via bit-torrent, I don't know if all the sets are available, but this is obviously one possible method to alleviate bandwidth limits on your hosting package for those who don’t want to subscribe or only want a set or two. It is my understanding (I may be wrong) that the sets contained within the torrents are in some cases slightly older than the current sets.  Perhaps the torrents could run in sync with the current ftp sets.

Out of curiosity, is the main EmuMovies.com site down ATM? Haven't been able to access the home page since yesterday

Anyhow, once again, thanks for all your hard work on the EmuMovies project, long may it survive, and be an integral part of the arcade gaming community! 

[Circo]

The FTP is up and running but the main site is down, cause my host that I have now is a total flake   I am just realizing that I have only one alternative to continue going on the way I am and that is the dedicated server.  Why do they have to be so expensive lol.  My current subscription model covers the cost, I guess I just want to reinforce that by taking the site to the next level it would be worth it.  As far as updates last year was a little slow only because MAME took the majority of the year, thats behind me and if you keep in mind that mame was almost as big as every other set that I released put together... Anyway I have room for quite a few more updates going forward.

My big thing is that I really want to take care of my existing users and still be in a position to add new ones.  But in my current situation the only way to keep my existing users happy is to close up show for newcomers.  The torrents do need to be updated but at this point the bandwidth (personally) for me is just insane.  Also I can not host all of the vids in torrents for various reasons.

[boomstick]

Shame to hear about the flakey new www host.  I hope the new dedicated server will work out and allow the project to continue to grow and allow for a growing user base.  It would be a great shame to have to close the doors as it were.

Look forward to seeing what the project has installed for us in the future

[froggerman]

I have not made use of your website in the past but I am really looking forward to seeing your movies for the new HyperPin front end.

I know that it is hard to keep a website like yours running and I hope you find a model that will work for you.

[Tithis]

I think the whole project would benefit from becoming more like a FOSS project. Set standards for videos, make it easy for people to contribute, and distribute sets through torrents. This would save you money on bandwidth and by making it easy to contribute save you some labor.

I made some videos and uploaded them before. I was actually going to do more till I saw the videos I had uploaded were deleted and some hadn't even been replaced.

Also is something wrong with the FTP? I can't seem to connect

[Circo]

I think the whole project would benefit from becoming more like a FOSS project. Set standards for videos, make it easy for people to contribute, and distribute sets through torrents. This would save you money on bandwidth and by making it easy to contribute save you some labor.

I made some videos and uploaded them before. I was actually going to do more till I saw the videos I had uploaded were deleted and some hadn't even been replaced.

Also is something wrong with the FTP? I can't seem to connect

What videos were uploaded? The ftp has had some issues with things being deleted.  As it was an open server.  I am not sure if you have read but currently my hosting situation is very inconsistent.  Which is why we are looking at the dedicated server.  Actually after much discussion today I decided to go ahead and secure the hosting.  The thought of upping download speed up to 10X in many cases, and the security of the read-only access on the ftp.  I can quit worrying about hosting issues and get back to it.

EmuMovies actually has quite a bit of user contribution going on as far as content, and the ftp gives us a secure fast environment to share.  But if something that you uploaded has gone missing it was probably by accident and I was unable to protect the content.  Going forward I can either have an open upload directory and then content can be moved by any moderators to the user sections.  I currently have a "temporary ftp" with pretty much everything on it.  The old FTP was lost along with all of the accounts.  Since my e-mail has  been down for the last three days (again let me just say my new 99.5% uptime host is actually 30% uptime) I havent recieved any mail for awhile.  But I should be back up with email by the morning (just waiting for the DNS to swith to a temporary home while we get the server set up).

This doesn't mean that I am abandoning torrents its just that I have a ton of little projects going on with this site right now, and I want to fix naming issues, and missing vids on existing sets before releasing a new SQ torrent.  But the FTP will always be the most complete reliable source for the latest stuff.  And from the feedback that I have recieved I think I can make it pay for itself.

[keno21176]

Hi Circo

I am an emumovies subscriber, it is an awesome service and I thank you for it.     
anyone who runs a FE w/o video previews is really missing out.

An update to the lastest no-intro is definitely in order so this whole U/USA business can get settled, and it would be nice to have those sets finalized that are almost but not quite complete (ie, a lot of the "super ..." SNES games, etc). 

That being said though, I'm not sure if the current subscription model is the way to go?  Espec for consoles... once a console set is complete ("audited") and DL'd, well, thats its. yeah, no-intro might update a set w/ some newly found dump of an obscure Japanese prototype rom and there's probably a subset of true completionists that may feel compelled to nab it, but I think the majority of us are happy w/ a nice clean set of US/NTSC commercial releases and don't want to go thru hassle of a re-audit etc.
On the other hand, MAME is a different story, since that is basically an open ended project and may need ongoing updates.  But again, from a practical standpoint...
(a) does anyone really care if MAME adds yet another dump of some 20yr old mahjongg game and you dont have a movie for it ? 
(b) if someone cracks/dumps a "new" game, how many more years(decades?) will it be before it is even considered playable and there is powerful enough hardware to run it???

Its a tough call and anything involving financial outlay in a community where a lot of stuff is free is going to have detractors.  Maybe something like a $20 lifetime membership fee and then a $5-10/yr FTP access fee or something like that?  That way , say, you if you wanna add a new romset to your cab down the road or whatever, you can just plunk down the small outlay and DL just that set

Lastly , I agree w/ poster above questioning need for all the different video formats. Is HQ really necessary? Preview windows are so small and 99.9% of those games dont even run in that high of a resolution natively anyways.  Me, I actually feel kinda silly having like 3mb of Atari 2600 roms w/ 500mb of video previews (thank goodness HD space is cheap)

my $.02

Ken

[Circo]

I will keep that in mind, but we also have a long way to go as far as content, and the subscription can be cancelled easy enough.  But I will look into different pricing models definately.

[youki]

I share Ken's point view about HQ.

And personnaly i won't pay to be able to download your videos.  But i have been very happy to have paid you for a DVD Set few years ago.

I prefer pay  said 30$-40$  for a DVD set (or other supports, may be SD Cards  )  , than 20$  for a download access.

[TheShanMan]

Agree with Frizzle and Aceldamor regarding pricing. I very much appreciate what you've done, but I think if it got much more expensive than it currently is, I would expect a better quality product. And by that I mean complete+audited, and "real" videos. I don't mean this as a complaint, but I've talked with you about missing/bad videos in the MAME set (super mario bros crashes mala, and some videos as I recall show MAME's "type OK" intro screen for instance). It seems to take a LONG time to resolve these kinds of issues. And discovering when there are updated videos and what those updated videos are isn't easy. These things aren't the biggest deal in the world because I recognize that this must be a tremendous amount of work for you, and the fee I paid is pretty low in reality. But if I were paying more, and paying annually, it would really bug me.

[Circo]

Agree with Frizzle and Aceldamor regarding pricing. I very much appreciate what you've done, but I think if it got much more expensive than it currently is, I would expect a better quality product. And by that I mean complete+audited, and "real" videos. I don't mean this as a complaint, but I've talked with you about missing/bad videos in the MAME set (super mario bros crashes mala, and some videos as I recall show MAME's "type OK" intro screen for instance). It seems to take a LONG time to resolve these kinds of issues. And discovering when there are updated videos and what those updated videos are isn't easy. These things aren't the biggest deal in the world because I recognize that this must be a tremendous amount of work for you, and the fee I paid is pretty low in reality. But if I were paying more, and paying annually, it would really bug me.

I have no intention of raising prices, in fact there may be some reductions, and there is still alot of growth to do.  One of the problems with addressing those issues, I used to be alot quicker about it, was the coming of the baby but that is starting to pass, and there are a few other things that happened to me personally the last few months that really kept me away from the site.  Everything is pretty much behind me, I have a laundry list of changes that we are considering that should make it a better site.  I wish I could dicuss them but 6 months from now things may be way different.  I also ended up getting 7TB of bandwidth so we should be able to do some pretty amazing things.

Expect alot of releases this year (HiQ) like I have said before MAME was as big as everything else I have ever done put together and that project took all of '08 with a 1 year old lol.
Now the MAME OK screen videos are games that dont run those screens were all added in the last update for two reasons.  #1 I wanted the set to be 100%, if you see that screen it's easy to delete from a gamelist.  #2 when I go through the set as I have done 3 times now (Every 2 or 3 mame updates) I double check all of those to see if they are now playable.  So that was intentional not a bug.  The goal is still to have perfect sets with complete artwork for everything.  I have no intention of getting rich but it does need to pay for itself, with our current rate we are pretty much covered and with the new content this year and maybe even a new delivery system by the end of the year we should be just fine.  BTW Super Mario is done will be available on the new FTP as soon as I get this server set up

[TheShanMan]

Cool on the SMB video! And as for the OK screen videos, I could have sworn there was 1 or 2 in my favorites list that DO play, but I'll have to check that out and get back to you. I've been playing more of my dedicated arcade games than my mame cab lately so my memory might be foggy.

And I really want to reiterate that I am not trying to complain, nor do I want you to feel pressure. I wouldn't have brought it up if it weren't for this thread. I know how it goes with life - I have a 7 and a 4 year old. That stuff is certainly more important, and having to wait for updates is a minor thing to me. So only take my comments in the context of the possibility of increased fees and subscriptions. You have contributed to this community in a tremendous way, and I don't envy you for the amount of time that you must have spent on this to date. Not to mention having to play a lot of awful games just to get a video!

[Circo]

Don't worry I take it as it was meant

Each OK screen is the one that says "This game is not playable dont even try" and they are all red.  It's possible that some of those games may load, but something is wrong with them.

And don't you worry no fee increases

[ivwshane]

For me I'd personally just host the emumovies site with info an links on it (where people can submit new videos or however you do it). I would then simply have it hosted via bit torrent.

For those that are willing to pay then give them the ftp access with the latest videos that maybe haven't been added to the main torrent.

You may also want to look at hosting your torrent on:
deleted by saint - ROMs site
This site is a ratio/member site so their torrents are usually well seeded.

Trying to host all that data yourself is just too much!! I appreciate it but I don't know how you do it!

[TheShanMan]

He already has torrents at PD.

[boomstick]

He already has torrents at PD.

And to my knowledge, PD don't allow Nintendo related material

[FrizzleFried]

He already has torrents at PD.

And to my knowledge, PD don't allow Nintendo related material

MAME full set includes distinctly Nintendoesque IP...

[boomstick]

You got me there, didnt think about the mame sets, silly me lol

[ivwshane]

Great! Now I feel like a bigger noob:(

In that case keep up the good work:D

[Tithis]

What videos were uploaded?

Just the NES Super Marios, River City Ransom, and RootBeer Tapper. I think everything but RootBeer Tapper was replaced. I havnt check the FTP for awhile.

[TheShanMan]

some videos as I recall show MAME's "type OK" intro screen for instance

My bad. The ones that fall in this category were daphne games that I put into my mame list, but failed to fix the videos to use the daphne videos rather than the mame videos. Sorry for the false alarm on this. You were right Circo.

[Space Fractal]

bug in the homepage:

ALL links open in a new browser (including these intern links, example to contant) open a new window first time instead using the same window. Not a normal pratice. New Windows should only accour when open external links.

I think  <base target="_blank" /> line in the html page should been removed and manually add a target for external instead?


Here is also a zip file inside high quality mame movies which contain PSX boxes.... I guess it should been placed in Other - Officiel or such?

[Circo]

bug in the homepage:

ALL links open in a new browser (including these intern links, example to contant) open a new window first time instead using the same window. Not a normal pratice. New Windows should only accour when open external links.

I think  <base target="_blank" /> line in the html page should been removed and manually add a target for external instead?


Here is also a zip file inside high quality mame movies which contain PSX boxes.... I guess it should been placed in Other - Officiel or such?

Thanks I will take a look at these issues this weekend.

[chrisnack]

I'm a paying subscriber.  You can find most of what you need free, but it was nice to just get it all in one place.

The one thing i would like to see changed though is some more quality control on the videos i guess.  Some of the videos are bad and just show a picture of the "missing game files" screen.  Which i assume is the result of an automated process creating the videos.  So that kind of sucks, So i would really like to see those games cleaned up that don't have valid videos. 

The other main thing i'd love to see if some leveling of the audio in the videos, they are all over the place, i went through and using a leveler to extract the audio out of hte videos and adjust the volumes on them all so they are the same volume.   I hated scrollling through games and have it loud then soft, then loud.

Overall it's nice to see someone putting this together, and it's nice to get things in one place.  It looks like a TON of stuff was lost when you switched hosts, because i don't see nearly what i saw before the switch.

Overall, i'm pretty happy with what i paid for, but if i had to improve anything, it would be the things i've mentioned. If it was free, i wouldn't care, but since i paid for it, cuz i feel like i can expect a little bit more

Hope the feedback helps.

[Circo]

Hmm, I dont know about missing game video screens, that's probably your front end.  There is still a lot left to upload nothing was lost so its getting there.  As far as the quality it really does vary especially on the old sets.  Thats why you are starting to see new versions slowly come out.  Keno just finished the SNES HiQ AVI set that is the entire us set, and also very clean.  I have finished updating all of the arcade sets except for Zinc (Will get to that shortly).  Also in addition to the new SNES set I have just about put the finishing touches on a TG16/PCEngine complete set and a new Atari 5200 set.  All in very high quality.

One other thing that is showing up on the ftp is videos and artwork updated with the latest No-Intro and Goodmerge naming.  Also all of the videos are done by hand (we are just getting better at it)

Also as soon as this renaming thing is done, and it's going quickly with the new FatMatch renamer, I will get a new SQ torrent out there, getting very close now.

[chrisnack]

Hmm, I dont know about missing game video screens, that's probably your front end.  There is still a lot left to upload nothing was lost so its getting there.  As far as the quality it really does vary especially on the old sets.  Thats why you are starting to see new versions slowly come out.  Keno just finished the SNES HiQ AVI set that is the entire us set, and also very clean.  I have finished updating all of the arcade sets except for Zinc (Will get to that shortly).  Also in addition to the new SNES set I have just about put the finishing touches on a TG16/PCEngine complete set and a new Atari 5200 set.  All in very high quality.

One other thing that is showing up on the ftp is videos and artwork updated with the latest No-Intro and Goodmerge naming.  Also all of the videos are done by hand (we are just getting better at it)

Also as soon as this renaming thing is done, and it's going quickly with the new FatMatch renamer, I will get a new SQ torrent out there, getting very close now.

The missing video are in the MAME sets..  The videos aren't missing, simply the video is there, but it's not a video of the game, it's a video of the red missing files screen.

Actually i think MACH 3 was one i found last night.  Usually they are CHD games and the video shows the screen saying the CHD files are missing.

[Circo]

LOL Those are the red this game does not even work don't even try screens   They are there because "The game doesn't work don't even try"  I'm not a miracle worker

[chrisnack]

LOL Those are the red this game does not even work don't even try screens   They are there because "The game doesn't work don't even try"  I'm not a miracle worker

Mach 3 works just fine. 

But i guess that makes sense.  However, i know some of them i have launched just fine.

Well maybe those video shouldn't be included then?  Just a thought.  If the game doesn't work, then video preview.

[TheShanMan]

The other main thing i'd love to see if some leveling of the audio in the videos, they are all over the place, i went through and using a leveler to extract the audio out of hte videos and adjust the volumes on them all so they are the same volume.   I hated scrollling through games and have it loud then soft, then loud.

I can't say I've noticed them being "all over the place" but I have noticed the occasional video that's too quiet. Rampage World Tour comes to mind. When you first launch the game the audio is turned WAY down for some reason and you have to go into the game's config to turn it up. That's obviously the reason for the quiet audio in that case. It would be nice to have cases like these fixed. Circo, I don't know if you really have time to deal with these kind of issues? It seemed minor to me so I never bothered to report it, but if you do want to hear about them then I'd pay more attention to it.

[chrisnack]

Agreed, if needed i can start compiling a list of videos that aren't "correct"

I can't do much about the audio anymore since i tweaked all mine, but i'd be happy to start jotting down all the videos that don't work when the game does work.  Obviously it will take awhile to comprise that list since there are alot.  I really only mess with Mame, for any of the other systems, if i have anything, i'm happy, but i'm picky about the mame stuff since that's the main focus of my cabinet.

[TheShanMan]

Is it possible the discrepancy is due to you running a different version of mame than 0.128 (the version that the videos represent)? If you're not running 0.128 then it might be worth checking to see if the games are playable in 0.128 before telling Circo the videos are wrong.

[blkdog7]

Lets talk reality.  The reality of the situation is that just about EVERYONE in the scene appreciates your hard work and loves the product you put out.   That said,  the vast majority will NOT pay $10 a year,  let alone $25.00 a year for a subscription.  Why?   There are many,  the least of which is that there are a lot of cheap ---daisies--- out there (and I rank among the finest of the cheap ---daisies---!).   Ask yourself this question... WHY would someone pay a yearly subscription when they'd only have to subscribe once and get everything they want/need the first year.  There really isn't enough updates to justify a $25.00 yearly subscription.

If you absolutely must go with a paid subscription model you may want to go with a larger initial fee and then very low yearly fees... or even offer multiple year options like this:

1 year - $20.00
2 years - $30.00
3 years - $35.00
Unlimited - $50.00

But even at those rates I can't see many subscribers (to be honest).   

Maybe..

1 year - $10.00
2 years - $15.00
3 years - $18.00
Unlimited - $20.00

That maybe more realistic frankly.

Frizz,  you cheap bastard!

$20.00 a year (you can do only one year) is a great deal considering all of the insane work that went into this project and the bandwidth needed to support it.

I have no problem paying $20 for this service and I did. Now if the new server can just start working.

And I second the idea of only having one type of video format for Hyperspin, MALA, etc.

[TheShanMan]

Circo, 2 things...

1) I thought you said the SMB video you would be uploading (SQ AVI) would be a new, fixed one, but it appears to have the same problem with synchronization as before.

2) How can users tell when there are updated videos, and which videos are updated? Is there a "whatsnew" file that lists each new/modified video that has been uploaded and the date of the upload?

[geocab]

I think your site is great and when I build a cabinet, I will be ordering some DVD sets from you for sure.  I'm too impatient to download 100+ Gigs of files, I'd rather just have the discs.